About the author
Leonie Joubert is an award-winning South African author who uses different ways of storytelling to grapple with many of today's tough issues as we try to find ways to live together on a tightly packed planet: climate and environmental change, energy policy, cities as development hubs, why today’s food system leaves many of us hungry, heavy, and sick. More recently, her work delves into the realm of public mental health.
She has spent the better part of 17 years exploring these topics through books, journalism, communication support to academics and civil society organisations, non-fiction creative writing, and podcasting.
She was the 2007 Ruth First Fellow; was listed in the Mail & Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans You Must Take to Lunch (2008); was twice given an honorary mention in the Sunday Times Alan Paton Nonfiction Awards (2007 and 2010); was named the 2009 SAB Environmental Journalist of the Year (print/internet category); and was shortlisted for the 2016 City Press Tafelberg Nonfiction Award.
Her books include Scorched, Boiling Point, Invaded, The Hungry Season, Oranjezicht City Farm, Tomatoes & Taxi Ranks, and several more.
You can read more about Leonie's work here.
About the photographer
Oliver Barnett is a Cape Town-based photographic artist who emigrated to South Africa from the United Kingdom in 2007. The wild elemental scenery of the Cape starkly contrasts the beautiful but essentially manicured English countryside in which he grew up. Moving here prompted a new creative path, guided by valuable insights into the self-regulating intelligence of nature and the desire for an enhanced participation in the unfolding cycles we are bound to.
Oliver has spend many hours exploring these new lands. He taught himself photography in the process, and started to learn about the unique diversity of the Cape floral kingdom. This led to the development of adaptive editing techniques to create images that offer a narrative to a transforming sensory perception of place within the land.
The resulting body of work intends to provide tools to connect to a collective perception of the environment and prompt new ways to encourage the seeds of recovered ecological sensibility occurring within human consciousness.
You can read more about Oliver’s remarkable body of work here.
MAKING CONTACT
Psilocybin and most other psychedelics are illegal substances in South Africa. It is a criminal offence to buy, sell, or be in possession of these, and medical practitioners cannot and do not offer psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT). This will change in the near future, but until it does, I cannot assist anyone with information on how to source journey guides or psilocybin mushrooms, because of the criminal risk. Medical practitioners cannot and do not offer psilocybin-assisted therapy, meaning I therefore cannot assist with any referrals. Nevertheless, in spite of this important disclaimer, I receive weekly requests for assistance - requests which I cannot address. I have therefore decided to remove the email form allowing for listeners to make contact.
I realise how frustrating this is for many, but in the short term, this is the status quo.
Please do as much research as you can, and ask your doctor or therapist what they are doing to learn about this treatment, or lobby to bring it to South Africa. The more medical practitioners become aware of this treatment, the sooner the medical community will begin to catch up with the changing global zeitgeist.